Some children are moved from a crib with side rails to a regular bed without side rails at an early age. Some young children (and older persons) have a tendency to fall out of bed. The prior art shows that a variety of solutions have been proposed to reduce the risk of persons falling out of bed.
Pat. No. D-148,248 issued Dec. 30, 1947 to Kirkpatrick for CHILD'S BED shows a wooden bed with headboard and footboard and with decorative wooden side rails extending from the headboard and terminating about half way along the length of the bed.
Pat. No. 2,496,068 issued Jan. 31, 1950 to Rutkowski for BED GUARD shows a wooden bed guard removably fastened to a side rail of a conventional bed and extending half the length of the bed.
Pat. No. 4,286,344 issued Sept. 1, 1981 to Ikeda shows a mattress in which integral ridges are formed along the sides of the mattress. The ridges reduce the risk of a person accidentally falling out of bed. In one embodiment of Ikeda, the ridges extend the full length of the bed on both sides. In another embodiment of Ikeda, the ridges extend on both sides only about half the length of the bed.
Pat. No. 4,607,402 issued Aug. 26, 1986 to Pollard shows a retainer sheet comprising a sheet to be spread over a mattress with pockets built into the sides of the sheet to receive and return cylindrical shaped foam retainers intended to reduce the risk of falling out of bed. The foam retainers can be removed when it is desired to wash the sheet.
All of these prior art bed guards are physically attached or formed integral with the bed, mattress, or a special sheet and are consequently expensive. Kirkpatrick and Ikeda both lack the flexibility of removing the bed guard when it is desired to use the bed without them. Rutkowski's bed guard is cumbersome and difficult to store when not is use. Pollard is the most pertinent prior art but requires a special sheet with pockets, which is obviated by the present invention.